Privacy by restraint
The forum collects what discussion and account security require, then keeps the rest out.
No email identity
Accounts use a username, a password, and one-time recovery codes. Administrators can change usernames. Offset does not collect email addresses or provide staff recovery overrides.
IP addresses and security
The forum uses your IP address in request memory for rate limiting and forwards it server-side to our internal analytics service for location and anonymous visitor/session reporting. The forum database and application logs do not store raw IP addresses. Security limits retain only a keyed short-window digest, which is never used for moderation or account linking.
Self-hosted page analytics
Our internal self-hosted analytics receives page URLs, titles, referrers and campaign information, screen/language details, browser User-Agent, and ordinary outbound link clicks. Signed-in activity is associated with your account ID, username, and forum profile link. Analytics includes visitor, session, browser/device, and location reports. Authentication, settings, staff forms, advertising clicks, Post bodies, and hidden fragments are excluded; session replay is disabled. The analytics endpoint, credentials, and dashboards are never exposed through public forum pages or APIs. Browser privacy signals do not disable these first-party events.
Public profile choices
Your username, avatar, bio, join date, visible counts, standing, and optional social links are public. A brief authenticated heartbeat shows when you are online. Heartbeats expire from memory, without retained browsing history or public last-seen timestamps.
Section boundaries
Group-only sections and their activity are omitted for ineligible viewers. Hidden fragments and guest-hidden link destinations are not included in public APIs, previews, search, or metadata.
Retained discussion history
Post revisions and moderation evidence are retained for staff review. Account deletion removes authentication and profile data, anonymizes authorship, and preserves discussion content.
Private reading positions
Unread tracking stores only your position in each Thread, without reading timestamps or public read receipts. Account deletion removes these positions. Your active-session list contains sign-in and expiry times, not IP addresses or device fingerprints.
Optional click-to-show GIFs
GIF search opens GIPHY in another tab. In discussions, Show GIF loads a sandboxed GIPHY viewer only when you click; GIPHY then receives your request and IP address, without the forum page address. Hide GIF removes the viewer. Ordinary reading loads no GIF service or tracking, and guests do not receive external Post link destinations.